In the world of marketing, Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing both have their pros and cons. This blog post will discuss what each type of marketing entails and the advantages and disadvantages they offer.

In addition to that, we’ll also talk about which one is better for your business!

As everyone in the Marketing industry knows, there’s a never-ending debate about which form of marketing is superior and which one you should use as the ultimate form of marketing for your business.

Table of Contents

What is Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing is a form of marketing that attracts customers to your website and then converts them into leads or sales.

Inbound Marketing works like a magnet for your leads. Instead of forcing customers to visit your website, they visit it because they WANT to – because you have created desirable, target-specific content that draws people to your website.

Inbound Marketing is typically accomplished through different channels, such as:

SEO;

Inbound Marketing can be accomplished through SEO by making your target audience’s content and distributing it on the internet through several social media platforms or blogs.

It starts when your specific target audience begins their shopping journey online. First, the potential client searches for the product you’ve made, created specifically to accommodate your desired audience. Then, after they search for it, it appears as the first thing on the search engine – all because you have made a product you knew your target audience would exactly be looking for.

Inbound marketing focuses on the customer, which is why it has a high ROI. In terms of SEO and making content specifically for your audience, Inbound Marketing is more effective because you’re marketing to people who are already actively looking for what you have made. Therefore, your product is tailored to the needs of the customer.

Social Media Advertising;

Inbound Marketing uses social media advertising to create awareness and to drive traffic. In addition, inbound marketing provides a powerful, interactive way for prospects to be introduced into the sales funnel versus Outbound Marketing, where you, as the marketer, are pushing your products through advertisements without any prospect interaction at all.

Social media advertising is combined with SEO to make sure the clients are prompted to buy the product.

How many times have you searched for a product on Google, only to see it advertised on your Instagram feed as you’re scrolling through other people’s posts?

Blogging & Influencer Marketing;

Inbound Marketing can also be accomplished by blogging regularly about topics your customers are interested in, which usually includes industry trends, company news, or new products you offer.

Inbound marketing uses blogs to communicate with the audience, knowing people would be searching that exact question or trend, hoping they would stumble across their article.

For example, let’s say you have a new fitness app that helps people lose weight. In Inbound Marketing, you would use the latest articles titled on how to lose weight, in which the blog mentions the so-called fitness app that you have created. So naturally, the more information about the product, the more credible it seems and the more people want to try it out.

Inbound Marketing can also be used by social media influencers or people with a large following on Instagram and Snapchat. In an Inbound Marketing model, you would give these posts to the Influencer for free to reach their audience of potential buyers.

For example, if your favourite fitness influencer is drinking a gym shark protein shake, you’re more likely to buy the same gym shark product because you trust your role model.

Email Campaigns (i.e., Newsletters)

Inbound Marketing uses successful email campaigns to keep customers updated on company news, new products or thank your customer for buying from you.

An example would be sending an introductory offer to someone who has been viewing your website or someone who has recently signed up for your newsletter.

This simple technique makes the person more likely to want to buy from your website, as they are being swayed by the free offer being given to them. As far as marketing techniques go, giving away free items is one of the most successful strategies to gain more customers.

You can also use Email campaigns to measure how well Inbound Marketing is working. This strategy allows you, the Inbound Marketer, to track what your customers are doing and see if they have responded positively or negatively towards any of your Inbound Marketing tactics.

This means that it requires a lot of time and effort for this marketing technique to work effectively. To make an email campaign a success, you need the right subject line, correct timing for sending it out and good content to keep your customers interested in what is being sent to them.

Inbound Marketing Automation

Inbound Marketing automation is software that Inbound Marketers can use to save time and focus on their end goal.

This particular type of automation gives Inbound Marketer’s the ability to craft automatic emails or even outsource some of the work to an Inbound Marketing Agency that specializes in this field.

You can use marketing automation to manage and track Inbound Marketing efforts such as email campaigns, social media campaigns or SEO. Inbound marketing is a great way to build relationships with potential consumers by providing them with valuable content that will help inform their purchasing decision without being too pushy.

Advantages of Inbound Marketing:

Inbound Marketing provides higher ROI for your business because you’re attracting leads into your funnel without having to spend large amounts on advertising or outreach.
Inbound Marketing is more cost-effective because it relies on content to attract and engage your potential customers. Inbound marketing also has a lower risk of spam than Outbound Marketing. This is because you’re not constantly bombarding people with advertisements or sales pitches but instead providing them with valuable information that they can choose when and if to consume.
Inbound Marketing is also more ethical than Outbound Marketing because Inbound Marketing doesn’t rely on “sell-by” ads but instead provides relevant content to your potential customers.
Inbound marketing tends to lead with high-value offers and products that are likely to interest visitors’ needs.
Inbound marketing provides a more personal connection for your customers as Inbound Marketing is two-way in nature, allowing both parties to communicate.

Disadvantages of Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing requires constant time and effort. Inbound marketing is great for generating leads, but it won’t be easy if you are a small business like mine that does not have the time to monitor your blog and social media accounts every day. To keep up with inbound marketing efforts, one must devote an hour or two per day to content creation and monitoring their website.
A lot of inbound marketing strategies require special tools to do what they want to achieve – some of those tools could be costly, depending on how big you would like your campaign to be
Inbound marketers have a lot in common with growth hackers, who need some time and effort to test their strategies before implementing them to determine which one works best for their clients.

What is Outbound Marketing

Outbound Marketing is a technique for promoting a product or service by advertising the company’s message. Outbound marketing is like a megaphone of advertising, by being vocal about the product you are selling.

Most of the time, outbound marketing doesn’t have a target audience in mind. Instead, the outbound technique will advertise the product to anyone who’s around. Outbound marketing’s principles are based on; the more significant the group of people who hear your message, the bigger the return, rather than focusing on a specific audience.

Outbound marketing’s advertisement is repetitive and in your face, as it forces the customer to buy something that wasn’t at the top of their list – they weren’t even looking for it, they just stumbled across it, or it was shown to them. Yet, the viewer has seen it around so many times that they think they need to buy it.

You can accomplish Outbound Marketing through a variety of methods. These may include:

Billboards

Billboards are a type of Outbound marketing, and the idea behind walking into one is to advertise your product or service. In contrast, social media falls under Inbound marketing because people willingly come onto the site for information.

Billboards can be found around the city in various places, whether on a busy road or a bus or bus stop. This type of marketing is suitable for spreading information around while you’re out, enjoying your day or running errands – that kind of advertisement will follow you around, popping up now and again, whether you were looking for it or not.

Billboards are especially effective when you’re sitting in traffic or waiting for your bus; this forces you to read the adverts around you, making you think about the product placed in front of you.

Print Media Advertising

Outbound Marketing uses newspapers and magazines to promote its product around. It’s an old fashioned way of advertising, significantly that the number of people buying newspapers has decreased dramatically over the years.

In the case of newspapers, this is because people still love to read them. In the case of magazines, it’s because they’re in a waiting room usually or sitting on their counter in doctors’ offices and hospitals, and they have nothing else to read.

This form of marketing can be effective if you know what your target market likes to read about to advertise accordingly.

Television Broadcasting

Outbound marketing also uses TV broadcasts and ads to show out their product. In the past, advertising on television was always static: a single image or clip that would play through an entire commercial break. Outbound marketers now use video commercials with soundtracks and interactive adverts to keep viewers engaged with the broadcast playing out before them.

Radio Broadcasting

Outbound marketing also uses radio broadcasts to boost its commercial growth. In the past, the radio was one of the most popular forms of advertising. It’s still a hugely effective means for delivering messages and persuading listeners to buy products or services advertised on-air.

Moreover, because radio is a live-chat broadcast and many radio stations have presenters and hosts, the listener connects with their favourite station. They begin to like their famous presenter, making the listener more likely to buy whatever product their favourite host has talked about.

Advantages of Outbound Marketing

You can use Outbound marketing to build awareness of a company’s product or brand. However, for outbound marketing efforts to be practical, you need people and organizations willing to help get the word out about your product. In addition, outbound marketing enables you to reach out to people who haven’t heard of your product yet.
People trust the ads produced by Outbound marketing because they’ve been around for years – they know that there will see that Pepsi ad on a bus stop poster or their bus.
Outbound marketing advertising techniques can produce instant results, as people who see those ads every day while travelling to work are likely to take action and purchase the product presented to them.

Disadvantages of Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing isn’t target-audience specific; therefore, it’s hard to make it relevant and appealing to everyone.
Outbound marketing is often expensive and inefficient, as you can’t measure the effectiveness of strategies such as billboards.
It’s easy to dismiss the outbound marketing techniques, as people can ignore the ads around them, especially the TV ones where more people switch their channels once commercials start running or bin their junk mail.

Conclusion

Both, Inbound and Outbound marketing have their pros and cons, depending on how you want to come across as in your business strategy. Inbound marketing is better for those who want to focus on service and experience, while outbound is more suited for those with money and power. In conclusion, it comes down to what you want to accomplish as a business owner or freelancer in terms of your goals and values, as well as the products/services you have to offer.

However, inbound marketing is much better if you are a small business or a startup. There are plenty of free and valuable inbound marketing strategies out there to grow your business and get leads efficient – inbound marketing is the modern marketing of a new era. It appeals to a much wider audience due to its links with social media and a non-forceful approach.